Statistics

Tag: Failure

Steve Jobs spoke at the Stanford Commencement ceremonies in 2005. While his speech lasted only 15 minutes, it contains some wonderful advice – so I encourage you to click on this link to watch it. He will be sorely missed.

A New York Times Magazine article titled “Games Theory” (September 19, 2010) mentioned some interesting points:

– “going to school can and should be more like playing a game, which is to say it could be made more participatory, more immersive and also, well, fun.”

– One way to “make school more relevant and engaging” to those who find it boring and are therefore at risk of dropping out is “to stop looking so critically at the way children use media and to start exploring how that energy might best be harnessed to help drive them academically”

– Games provide “‘failure-based learning,’ in which failure is brief, surmountable, often exciting and therefore not scary.” Students will “Fail until they win.”

– “Failure in an academic environment is depressing. Failure in a video game is pleasant. It’s completely aspirational.”

After reading a number of blog postings about Standards Based Grading (SBG), I tried a hybrid version of it during the Fall semester of 2010 in an Algebra I class and three Algebra II classes. What follows is a description of how I approached things, what worked, and what didn’t.

Grading Policy

Approximately 40% of each student’s semester grade was based on SBG quiz scores, 30% on traditional chapter test scores, and 30% on the semester exam.

I was not obligated to test to specific standards, so I picked quiz “topics” which were timely and allowed for challenging questions. My goal was to have most questions be challenging enough to make perfect scores unlikely on the first try.

Each student’s best two scores for each topic counted towards their overall Quiz grade. All lower scores for the topic were dropped, regardless of the sequence in which the scores were obtained.

Each answer received a maximum of five points:
– One point for attempting the problem
– One point for using a valid approach to the problem
– Three points for working the problem to a solution
– One point taken away (up to three) for each algebra or arithmetic error